FicWad

Chapter 11: Shop ‘til you drop

It was Monday morning. Sunday was the last night of staying at Frank’s, but we were still going to go shopping after school. He insisted on it. Don’t ask.

Going to school is always difficult, but when you haven’t slept properly the whole weekend and spent every waking hour un-relaxing, it gets nearly impossible. Frank had to drag me out of the bed and practically feed me my breakfast. It was only when he threatened to dress me himself, I was able to wake up a little bit. In the end I did manage to get dressed and go to school.

Everyone hates school.

Okay, not everyone. But those who like it are either good at every subject or a teacher. Principals are the worst though. First class on Monday mornings was history, and during the morning announcements I was about to fall asleep. The principal, who was making the announcements, had a boring, monotone voice and it seemed like he wanted nothing more than to make every student and member of his faculty fall asleep.

My head was resting against the desk, but I didn’t close my eyes. If I did, I would really fall asleep for sure. I was just about to give up and close them anyway when I felt someone poke my shoulder. I instantly stiffened and warily looked around to see who did it. When I saw that the person was the boy sitting next to me, my cheeks got a little red.

“Sorry to wake you up”, he whispered, looking amused. “But can I copy your notes from last class? I wasn’t at school then.”

I nodded, but I thought it was a little strange. He had never seemed to care about taking notes before. He actually slept through most history classes. But I suppose it’s a good thing that he started to take more responsibility of his studies. I gave him my notebook and he promised to return it in time so I could still take notes for this class.

For the rest of the class I didn’t feel at all sleepy. Instead I felt pretty tingly. The boy didn’t talk to me that day again, if we don’t count it when he gave back my notebook and thanked me, but he was still pretty much all I thought about that day. Funny how things like that happen. I didn’t even know his name.

After school Frank came to pick me and we went straight to the mall. And since he is, and I quote, “a sexy rock star who is adored by millions of fans and could get molested by them any time of the day”, he cleverly disguised himself with a fake nose, a top hat, a wig and Santa’s beard.

“You know Frank, you could’ve worn something normal”, I told him when we entered the mall and headed straight to the first clothing store we saw.

“Shh! Remember what I said”, he hissed. “I’m your cousin Fred today. Don’t blow my cover.”

“Sure”, I rolled my eyes. “And you look great.”

“Thanks! Okay, some ground rules”, he said when we stopped at the store’s door. “First of all, everything’s on me.”

“Fra- I mean, Fred”, I corrected myself when I noticed the look he was giving me. “I have some money so I can pay for myself.”

He shook his head. “Nu-uh. No way. I might never get kids of my own so I’m going to spoil you. And besides, I’m a rich rock star, I can afford to spend some money on you.”

I still didn’t like the fact that he would pay, but I figured that I couldn’t change his mind. Frank was difficult to manipulate. He’s smarter than he looks. Or he’s just so incredibly daft that no arguments get through his thick skull. I decided to believe the first option.

“Rule two: There are no other rules! Now go and get crazy!” Frank laughed and pushed me into the store.

I didn’t know what store it was, but it looked kind of cool. The clothes were mostly for young people and they looked good. I glanced at where Frank was standing, but he wasn’t there anymore. Instead, I found him chatting with a woman. She had a name tag so she was probably a salesperson. I shrugged and started walking through the store.

I didn’t shop a lot. Usually I just bought what I needed and that’s it. I previously owned only one hoodie, a pair of blue jeans, a few t-shirts and a long skirt which I had never worn. So this was all very new to me.

In the end I had only found two shirts and a belt from that store. Even though Frank had forbidden (his choice of word, not mine) me from looking at the price tags when I was choosing what I liked, I couldn’t help but check the tags. I didn’t want Frank to go bankrupt because of me.

“Are you ready to go to the next store?” Frank asked, appearing next to me. Judging by the wide and proud smile on his face he probably got the saleswoman’s phone number.

“Yeah”, I said and gave him the clothes.

“This is it?” he asked, surprised that I had only picked out so little clothing.

“It’s all I liked”, I said nervously. Luckily he bought my excuse and went to pay.

Unfortunately for me, Frank was determined to completely redo my wardrobe. In the next few clothing stores he didn’t let me out of his sight. He followed me around and made me try out half of the clothes on the racks. Needless to say, I left those stores with much more stuff than two shirts and a belt. I felt bad because Frank was spending all that money on me, but at the same time it was starting to feel kinda cool too.

Frank helped me carry all the paper bags into the house. I hadn’t been at Mikey and Alicia’s for a few days so it felt good to be back. As soon as I walked inside, I heard a loud thump from upstairs and moments later Alicia and Mikey came down the stairs, looking flustered.

Frank just had to whistle. “Mikey! Were you doing what I think you were doing?”

“Shut up! Don’t talk about it in front of the c h i l d”, Mikey glared, spelling the word child.

I rolled my eyes. “I’m fourteen, not four. What’s the big deal? You can talk all you want about sex, I don’t care”, I said, but my words didn’t have a very good affect on the adults in the room.

Mikey held his chest, as if he was having a heart attack, and gasped. “Gia! Such vulgar words!” Then he glared at Frank again and pointed a finger at him. “YOU! She spends a few days at your place and she starts talking about sex!”

“It’s not my fault!” Frank defended himself. “It’s the boy she’s been seeing!” Yeah, remember my imaginary crush that Frank made up? Apparently I’m now dating him.

“What boy?! No one tells me anything anymore!” Mikey whined.

I glanced at Alicia for support. She really was my saving angel, because she said: “Come on, I’ll help you carry the bags up to your room. Let the boys talk.” I followed her upstairs and we started unpacking the bags.

“Did you leave anything to the other customers?” Alicia asked when she was putting away some of the new clothes into my closet.

“Frank insisted on buying a lot of stuff”, I answered.

“By the way, are you sure you should be wearing this skirt?” she asked, holding a short jean skirt.

“I probably never will wear it anyway.”

“Alright. Just don’t let Mikey see it. You heard him just now downstairs.”

That made me forget all about unpacking and I sat down on the bed. “Why did he act like that?”

Alicia sighed, but she continued to put away the clothes. “Think about it. His brother is in rehab. He’s taking care of you, and he doesn’t think he’s doing a very good job at it. He promised Gerard that he’ll take care of you while he’s gone. Naturally he’s under a lot of stress too. I think you can understand it if he’s acting a bit odd.”

I looked down at the floor. I started to feel guilty again. I wasn’t used to people looking out for me; I had always been the one taking care of others. It was horrible when others saw that much trouble just for me. I didn’t think I was worth all that trouble.

Fifteen minutes later I went back downstairs when Mikey told me to. He was standing by the phone table, holding out the phone for me.

“It’s Gerard”, Mikey said and started to leave the room so I could talk to my dad in privacy, but I stopped him.

“Mikey, wait”, I said and he turned around to look at me.

And... then what? I wanted to say something to Mikey, but I had no idea what. The fact that he was here for me meant a lot, and I wanted to tell him I was thankful for that. But I couldn’t find the words. I hesitated for a while before putting down the phone (but I of course didn’t hang up) and I went over to Mikey.

When I wrapped my arms around his middle body, he was clearly confused. I had never hugged him before. Then again, I didn’t hug many people at all. The last person I hugged was my dad when he announced that he was going to rehab, but before that I can’t remember one single time that I hugged someone. Two hugs in less than two months. I had to watch out before it became a habit.

Mikey quickly recovered from the shock and confusion, and he hugged me back. Judging by the smile on his face when I pulled away, he didn’t think the hug was completely out of order. I still didn’t know what to say, so I just turned away and went to the phone. I heard Mikey close the door to the living room as he left.

“Dad?” I said into the phone.

“Hi Gia. How are you?” He sounded happy. In fact, I swore I had never heard him be so cheerful.

“I’m fine, but what’s wrong with you? You sound happy.”

“I have good news and bad news. Which ones do you want first?”

“Good news.”

“Okay, I might come home in two weeks.”

This instantly got me smiling. “Really?” I asked excitedly. I had started to miss him.

“Yeah. It all depends though, so don’t get too excited”, he said, but I could tell that he didn’t even believe himself. He was coming home, no matter what.

“I promise I won’t. What about the bad news then?”

I heard him sigh, so I got nervous. Whatever the bad news was, it wasn’t just bad. Judging by that sigh it was nearly catastrophic. “The social services found out about this... situation. They came here to see me. Said that they’ll be ‘keeping an eye on me’ and ‘making sure I stay on the right track’.”

“What does that mean?” I asked, biting my lip nervously.

“It means that if I screw up again, they’ll take you away. Put you in a foster home or something.”

I was quiet for a moment before I answered. “But everything’s okay”, I then said with a quiet voice.

“They don’t think it is. But Gia, don’t worry about it. I just thought that you had the right to know. They might come see you too. I thought it was better you heard from me than them.”

“Yeah”, I sighed. But he was right. It was no use worrying about it. Because once he comes home – in two weeks – everything will be okay again. They won’t have a reason to take me away.

“But anyway”, dad said, his tone changing again. He didn’t sound so gloomy anymore. “How’s school? And what’s the deal with that boy Mikey told me about?”

The smile returned to my face. “There is no boy, Frank invented him. And as for school, it’s okay. I’ll have a math test next week, but I don’t need to go to school on Friday because of some teacher conference thing.”

We continued to talk about my school and what I’ve been doing lately.

Do you remember when you were a kid, on the first grade, and you came home from school and excitedly told your parents about everything that happened at school like you had gone through tons of adventures? And even though the stuff you talked about was boring and completely pointless, your parents still laughed and were very interested in everything.

That’s what it was like now. It felt pretty good.

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A/N: Right, thought it would be time for a small author's note, though I'm not entirely sure if anyone will read it. I love the response I get here, which is why I try to update this story daily. I have now written it up to chapter 56 (or something), so it's no problem to do that. Thank you for the reviews and all ♥ But, if you have anything negative to say, constructive criticism is always welcome as well. Good reviews make me feel warm and fuzzy, but both kinds are awesome :)